MX switch testing rig?

[Piers Cawley]

So, as a result of my gung ho attitude to replacing a keyboard controller, I find myself with a hundred and some Cherry MX switches and I'd like to go through them and weed out the bad ones so I can either sell the rest or use them in insane prototypes.

I could fiddle about with a multimeter's continuity buzzer, but I started to lose the will to live after testing about five.

Has before I resort to stretching bits of wire across strategically drilled bits of plywood, I thought I'd ask here if anyone had already made a keyswitch test bed and had any suggestions.

[The_Ed]

A bad switch is rare. I just solder them in first, and if I find that they don't work or they fail AquaKeyTest I replace them. A bad switch may work 19/20 times, but the 1/20 still makes it bad. And when a switch is bad it has always been just the bottom half of the housing for me (specifically the crosspoints in it). I only throw away the bottom housings because of that as everything else is still useful/sellable.

[Piers Cawley]

Right. I'm about to be soldering in to a Maltron case, which is a point to point affair using solderable wire. Replacing a key after soldering is going to be a complete PITA (though less of a pain one I've regularised the layout a bit - there were wires going everywhere in the original matrix) so I'd rather make sure beforehand.

I guess I'll give myself an couple of hours fiddling to see if I can make something and give up if I can't